


it's so quiet here (and i feel so cold)

by sakuyamons



Category: DCU, DCU (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics), Wonder Woman (Comics), Wonder Woman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-04
Updated: 2017-03-04
Packaged: 2018-09-28 05:20:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10073891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sakuyamons/pseuds/sakuyamons
Summary: when cassie woke up, she knew she was in hell.aka while tim is stuck in a cell, cassie gets thrown into tartarus.





	

**Author's Note:**

> this is PROBABLY very canon-divergent, but i dont care i will assume shes on Tartarus until someone rescues her from limbo.
> 
> also, i mixed cassie's origins a bit, just fyi. It's better than her n52 story at least.

Cassie loathes the ends of the month, she has been hating them for a while now, she even prefers the job of being the full-time protector of Gateway City and dealing between some disgraceful Wonder Woman rogues that want to hurt her to hurt Diana (if she were here, anyway) than joining Donna in another search mission to find Diana and that mission only ends in failure.

 

It’s shitty, and it’s a constant heartbreak, despite how much she hates those missions, she always starts them actually feeling optimistic, sometimes they find a clue or two to then that clue leading to literally nowhere, and despite she hates those missions, she is the one who begs to look one more time, so maybe Diana will finally show up, because she is not dead, Wonder Woman doesn’t die, she is just...missing.

 

“Let’s stop for today, sweetheart.” Donna says, putting her hand on the blonde girl’s shoulder, she doesn’t need to say more, she is only trying to spare both of them more heartbreak “Maybe next time.”

 

Cassie sighs.

 

“Yeah, maybe.”

 

“Do you want to stay in the tower?”

 

“I’ll pass, mom is waiting for me.”

 

They don’t speak much on the trip back to the city, none of them feel like they want to talk, Donna tells her she should visit the titans, Cassie answers that she might do it at some point, she loves hanging out with Donna, just not on this circumstances.

 

“Donna.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“She saved my life, you know?”

 

Donna hugs her tightly before dropping her in front of her house, she knows that Donna has her own soul searching to do, and Cassie cannot help, so she wishes her the best and says her goodbyes. Helena doesn’t ask how the search went, and Cassie is thankful for it, the last time Helena asked how the search was Cassie ended up having quite the emotional breakdown in front of her mom, maybe it had been therapeutic, but she’d rather avoid the situation.

 

“Baby.” Helena starts “Do you think she is…”

 

“Alive? Definitely.” Cassie takes a bite off the fried chicken before continuing “I don’t know where she is, but she is alive, she wouldn’t just vanish like that, though...no matter how much we…”

 

(Diana hadn’t said anything when Cassie told her those words, but she did take a step back, almost in recoil, she was hurt, and part of Cassie had wanted to apologize but she felt a whisper on her ear saying _ _‘Good’.__ )

 

“No matter how much we fought.”

 

She can see that Helena wants to ask what exactly went down between Diana and Cassie before Diana went lost, but she knows better than asks -- and Cassie doesn’t want another breakdown, so her mom just pulls out the _ _Ben &Jerry’s__ and asks her if she wants some, hell, she ate fried chicken with french fries, she shouldn’t do it, but she is going to because she craves for ice cream.

 

When she was six years old, Wonder Woman had saved her life when a hurricane hit Getaway City, okay, she shouldn’t have been out in the first place, but she remembers clinging onto that tree for dear life, thinking that the wind was either going to send the tree flying or it was going to send her flying, and she remembers Diana rescuing her and taking her back to her mother.

 

She didn’t see Wonder Woman again until she was thirteen, and the circumstances were way less urgent, she needed a part-time job at the museum where her mom worked (and oh man, she remembers when Diana walked through those doors, asking her where her mom’s office was and Cassie was in shock for two minutes before replying a __‘Wow__ ’) and she quickly befriended her, although she couldn’t work there for long, having Diana on her life had been...cool, she always wanted a sibling to look up to, and now she finally had one, then a chain of events happened and she became Wonder Girl, much to her mom’s chagrin.

 

The day before Diana had gone ghost, they had a massive fallout, Cassie cannot remember why they were so mad at each other, and Cassie had said to Diana that she wasn’t her sister and…

 

“I’m sorry.” She whispers, to nobody in particular.

 

She likes to think she is practicing those words for when she finally finds Diana, she can either forgive her or tell her to fuck off if she doesn’t want to see her, she had intended to apologize the day after, but she had just disappeared from the ends of earth, so what if guilt is her main motivator to find her mentor? If she succeeds, it doesn’t matter if the motivation.

 

She went to sleep early that night, she wishes she had dreams of her time Diana had taught her to fly, but she didn’t, she had a dreamless sleep that night, she doesn’t know if that’s a good thing or not.

 

* * *

 

 

She swears to the Gods she saw her.

Diana had never been one to hide her presence, she never needed to, and even when she attempted it she failed at it (Cassie can relate to that), and she is a superhero (or a sidekick, whatever) so the trick of putting glasses on doesn’t work for her, that was Diana and it took every part of Cassie’s Amazon training to not just run after her, but silently following her instead, she knows it could be a fake, maybe Circe, maybe Dr. Psycho, hell, maybe Ares trying to get her attention, she will call Donna as soon as…

 

__‘What am I doing?’_ _

 

She shouldn’t be risking herself like this, hell, she knows it and yet she was following this Diana to wherever she was going - and she knows it’s probably a quiet place without a soul so they can kidnap her or whatever, and Gateway City would lose their protector, Donna would lose another sister, and her mother would have a heart attack.

 

She stops in her tracks and Diana stops walking as well, she doesn’t turn around to face her. Cassie is 80% sure that this woman isn’t Diana, yet the words _ _I’m sorry__  want to come out, she has to mentally tell herself that no matter how this woman looks, walks or speaks (if she can speak) is not the person she is looking for, and then Cassie’s blood begins to boil.

 

“Where is Diana?” She asks “And I _ _better__  like the answer.”

 

Fake Diana finally turns around, and Cassie knows she is fake by the way she smiles.

 

“Trapped in a lie, child.”

 

Oh boy, if she isn’t going to enjoy beating the shit out of this fraud.

 

* * *

 

 

Obviously, fake Diana is a skilled fighter, but Cassie is a real Wonder Girl, so the fight is more or less even, the woman’s twisted smile only grows as Cassie lands a punch on her, it naturally pisses the blonde girl even more - and Cassie wins at the end (it would be an insult to her training not to) but she is exhausted after the fight, anger is not enough.

 

“Where. is. Diana.” She repeats the question as she puts her foot on fake Diana’s stomach “And I better get a decent answer this time or --”

 

“She is saying the truth, child.” A male voice replies.  
  


 

She can’t even turn around to face him, or to ask questions, she is paralyzed. Whoever this guy is was able to paralyze her by fear only, she tries to adopt a fighting posture yet she can’t move an inch. _ _‘Move, Cassandra, move.’__ she tries to tell herself, he is not even doing anything, if she could launch a punch and run away, she’d take it as a victory. He punches her in the stomach her vision becomes black.

 

__‘A Demigod.’__ it’s her last thought before losing consciousness.

* * *

 

 

When she woke up, eyes opened yet she couldn’t see anything and Cassie knew she was in hell.

 

She knows enough about Tartarus to know this is the place, the Demigod  had thrown her onto Tartarus, she used to think that said place would be like Dante’s inferno, full of fire and the screams of the damned, maybe some Titan like Cronus wanting to eat teenage demigoddesses.

 

Tartarus is not that.

 

Tartarus is darkness, there are no screams of the damned, there are moans and sighs instead, and she thinks she’d rather hear the screams, it’s like these poor souls are used to the torture already and that they got tired of screaming, their moans are almost like final attempt on trying to ask for help, and she’d gladly help them, but she doesn’t know how and she is still figuring out how is she going to survive.

 

It’s like being blind, so she has to rely on her other senses as she walks towards...the exit, she hopes, there are minor monsters everywhere, and not so minor too, she wouldn’t be so worried if she were literally anywhere else, but they are on their habitat and therefore are stronger. They are mythology weirdos, she doesn’t feel pity as she slays them, but monster blood is still blood, and for the love of Hera (who might hate her, since she’s an offspring of an infidelity) she feels dirty with this blood on her hands.

 

She doesn’t know how long she has been here.

 

She knows she needs an exit before she descends into darkness as well.

 

* * *

 

 

The monsters get more intelligent as time passes, she hears her mother’s voice, begging her to come home, she hears Tim’s voice telling her to hurry up so she can save him ( _ _fuck off, Tim, you're dead__ she remembers with heartache), she hears Donna’s voice and she is certain it's fake because Donna wouldn't end in a place like this.

 

They get more intelligent, but Cassie is growing more apathetic to lies, her eyes are finally getting used to Tartarus’ darkness to the point that some figures are darker than the others, she feels her physical state deteriorating and she is limping because one of the monsters bit her leg strongly enough to remove a considerable amount of skin, which makes monsters (both intelligent and dumb) to go after her.

 

She wonders if Diana knows that she's here, that fake Diana told her that Wonder Woman was trapped in a lie? What did that mean? Did she remember Donna and Cassie? If she remembered, is she trying to rescue her? Or did she had a new Wonder Girl in her “false” world? Perhaps one better than she was, both as a partner and a sister, and why would she bother in saving a girl she doesn't remember meeting?

 

__‘And if she remembers me, then her last memories of me are less than pleasant.’_ _

 

She better get used to the fact nobody is going to rescue her, it will hurt less.

 

* * *

 

 

She hates how much she is learning about this place, she is getting used to it (well, as much as she can get used to it) and she wasn’t supposed to be here for this long, but look at the brighter side, at least she is alive.

 

She hasn’t slept since she got here, because she needs to survive and the monsters will get her if she goes to sleep, she thinks that she might be getting a fever as well, and she is hungry, as childish it sounds, she wants her mom. Especially when Tartarus is cold and unforgiving, yet sometimes she feels like she is being burnt alive, it doesn’t make sense, nothing of this damn place makes sense, no wonder why Cronus hates his sons so much when they threw him here, but he deserved it, she isn’t as bad as Cronus.

 

She hates how stubborn she can be, she just wants to sleep and let it be over.

 

She thinks about how she blew it off with Diana, and the reason was probably stupid; because she doesn't remember why they were fighting, she just remembers herself saying that they weren’t family and Diana’s icy stare melting onto a look of pure heartbreak. She messed it off, horribly, she wanted to apologize right away but she flew away instead. And when she finally decided to apologize Diana had gone missing.

 

She had never seen Themyscira, but she knew Diana missed her home terribly, and she and Donna were her family in the man’s world, she should have known better, and it’s probably too late.

 

“I’m sorry.” She whispers, not loud enough to the monsters to awake, but she needed it to get out.

 

* * *

 

 

Her feet cannot do it anymore, and she finally collapses to the floor, the monsters have done their waiting (apparently they get tired of getting killed over and over) and she feels all their eyes on her, it’s almost like she is the last slice of pizza and they all want her, they won’t get a demigoddess in a long time after this, the comparison it’s almost funny, she even laughs it off -- she is fucked up, but it doesn’t matter, she tries to move her legs or arms and everything on her it’s too exhausted to obey her brain.

 

The monster (one of them) leans onto her to smell her, and perhaps it’s the mere instinct of survival right now, but she literally forces her hand to clench and lays one punch on the monster’s nose, enough to make him back up for a minute -- and the mythology freak growls and Cassie knows that’s monster that translates to KILL HER.

 

Unfortunately, her legs don’t want to obey her the way her hand is, so...this is the end.

 

She figured out that she would be more desperate -- this place is terrible, but at least it will be over, maybe once she dies, she will go to Elysium like the Greek heroes, the thought is somehow comforting, so, she closes her eyes and waits for an end...that doesn’t quite happen.

 

When she opens her eyes again, among all this now-familiar, disgusting darkness, she sees a Golden Lasso, and she feels like she’s six again.

 

She can’t do anything but observe how Wonder Woman beats the life off these monsters, she is trying to stand up and help, but she can’t, she is too exhausted and she still cannot comprehend why Diana is here, she knows the answer, she came to rescue her.

 

__‘But why?’_ _

 

The monsters seem to know better than fighting Wonder Woman, so they run away, Cassie has imagined this moment over and over and there is part of her if she wonders if this is not a sick joke. But she knows it’s not a joke or a trick -- she thinks she has spent enough time on Tartarus to know the difference, funnily enough, when it should be the opposite.

 

Wonder Wo-- No, __Diana,__  kneels in front of her, touching her cheek as she asks in a worried tone.

 

“Cassie?”

 

Her brain must know that she is safe now; because she finally lost consciousness.

 

* * *

 

 

It's hard to lost consciousness and actually staying like that (which, given the circumstances, is something she'd want) when there is not a single part of your body that isn't in pain.

 

Still, she isn't fully conscious either, she is in some weird trance where she cannot fully rest - because of the pain and the constant Tartarus reminder, but she is too exhausted to open her eyes. She wonders if what she saw was an illusion and once she regains consciousness she will be in Tartarus again. She mere __thought__ makes her whimper.

 

She feels a kiss on her forehead, and she doesn't need to be a genius to know the kiss comes from Diana, it feels nice, but what is more important, it feels comforting. They are probably away from Tartarus now, there is nothing to fear.

 

“ ‘orry.”

 

She doesn't know if Diana heard her, she fell back into sleep shortly after that.

 

* * *

 

 

(She doesn’t remember screaming from the top of her lungs while she’s sleeping and her sisters can’t wake her up and can just hold it while the night terror takes over her and hush her when it finally ends. It’s probably for the best.

 

She doesn’t remember that the only coherent thing that came from her lips was begging them to leave the lights on.

 

It’s probably for the best.)

 

* * *

 

 

She finally wakes up to the wonderful sound of Donna talking to someone on the phone, she heard her name, as well as Diana’s, so it should be Steve, most likely, she is just giving a current update of her status,  she decides to let her know she is awake.

 

“Donna. __Water__ ”

 

It hurts to speak, with the regain of consciousness, the rest of her senses are coming back as well, and unfortunately, the first thing that she realizes is that her lips are cracked and that her throat is quite literally burning, she hears when Donna tells Steve she will call him later and how quickly she leaves the room to get her water. She takes her time to open her eyes – blinking rapidly so she can take her time to get used to the light, it's one of those ugly, yellowish lights, but she feels like she's staring at the sun, only Donna could have these ugly yellowish lights, so she assumes they are in Donna’s apartment.

 

Donna gives her the water bottle she asked for and she took a quick sip from it, it was cold and refreshing, it felt like fucking paradise.

 

“What's your full name?”

 

“What the f-—? Cassandra Elizabeth Sandsmark.”

 

“Your mother’s name?”

 

“Helena.”

 

“Father?”

 

“Zeus.”

 

“Where were you born?”

 

“Gateway City.”

 

“Who is the current president of the United States?”

 

The current president? He was...

 

“...God __fucking__ dammit.”

 

Donna couldn't hold back an amused smile “I think that's a good answer.” She said as she removed a strand of hair from Cassie’s face “How are you feeling?”

 

“Been better.” She gave Donna some space so she could sit on the bed with her, Donna gladly took the spot, not without giving her little sister a kiss on the cheek and a sermon about how worried she was when she went missing, even though it had been just for a week (and Cassie stares at her wide-eyed, she thought she was at Tartarus for months) and then she explains to her that the dude who threw her onto Tartarus is Jason and that apparently he had a relationship with Diana.

 

“Speaking of, where is Diana?” Cassie finishes the bottle of water and her throat demands even more -- but decides to wait.

 

Donna sighs, and Cassie knows she has activated rant mode.

 

“She just left, she is resting. Thank the Gods she is! did you know that our sister is incredibly stubborn? Well, you __clearly__  don’t, because you slept for three days after Diana rescued you from Tartarus, she literally _ _refused__ to leave your side those three days.” It hurts to smile with these cracked lips but she cannot help but do it at her sister's’ comment, Donna continues the rant “She hasn’t slept in __three days__ , and I finally convinced her that I could keep an eye on you because I am your sister as well! and I really can’t be mad because she was losing her shit and I was as well and...” Donna sighed again “You’re really loved, Cass, I hope you know that.”

 

She hugs Donna as tightly as she can and she lets out a sob come out from her lips as Donna hugs back-- she thinks about how in peace she had been about dying before Diana arrived and she cannot help but feel a bit selfish, she had given up, and she doesn’t doubt anyone on her situation would have done the same, but she didn’t spare a thought about how her loved ones would feel, she hopes that didn’t make her a bad person.

 

“I love you too, Donna.”

 

“Oh, just me?”

 

“You wish, I love Diana too, and even Miss Candy and Steve even if I don’t know them much.”

 

“Even they called to see how you were doing, should I wake Diana?”

 

“Nah, give her a couple of hours to get rest. But if you could get me more water…”

 

Donna came back with three more bottles of water, which were very welcoming. None of them really talked much after that, besides occasional remarks and Cassie’s questions about Jason (which Donna could only answer with a shrug, apparently Diana is the one that knows about him.) Donna cleaned Cassie’s wounds and changed bandages in a comfortable silence. She had cuts and bites every part in her body. She knows she will be limping for a while, as much water she's drinking and chapstick she is using she knows that it will take some time to heal, she had blisters on both hands and feet and she might have tried to pop out one that was on her hand and Donna had literally sent her a mom glare that was enough to her to change her  mind.

 

Shortly after that, she talks to her mom on the phone and although she tries to swerve off Helena’s worries through quippy, teenage sarcasm, she is trying not to cry on the phone and she is succeeding (barely, because Helena cried the first five minutes after Cassie had greeted her with a __hi, mom__  which made Cassie want to cry too) she assures her that she will call back or go home as soon as it’s possible, Helena literally demands her to say hi to Diana. Cassie promises she will.

 

Nobody asks her about Tartarus, she welcomes that, she doesn’t think she can explain it.

 

She goes back to sleep shortly after talking to her mom, a dreamless, peaceful sleep, perhaps it was because she was aware she was sleeping in a bed, in her sister’s apartment, and that both of her sisters were near her, sometimes the thought that it might all be an illusion and she’s back there again comes back, but she does an effort to push it away -- and it the thought finally goes away (for a while) when she feels a hand on her forehead, someone must be checking if she is still feverish.

 

“Diana?” She asks, eyes still closed.

 

The voice confirms it’s her.

 

“I’m sorry. Did I wake you up?”

 

“No. I was waking up already.” She finally opens her eyes to meet her sister “Morning.”

 

“It’s afternoon already, Cass.” Diana’s hand moves from Cassie’s forehead to her student’s cheek, Cassie leans onto the touch on instinct “How are you feeling?”

 

“I’ve been better, but I’m alive. Thanks to you.” She knows what she should say, but she cannot help but ask “Where have you been?”

 

“I -- It’s complicated, I have yet to explain it to Donna. I was waiting for you to wake up, for a moment I thought that I had arrived too late. Teenage superheroes are aware of the risks that come with the job; but if something had happened to you...I wouldn’t forgive myself.”

 

Diana caresses Cassie’s cheek once again, almost like she thought this might be an illusion that would shatter at any minute.

 

“I’m sorry, Diana.”

 

“It’s not your fau--”

 

“I’m sorry for what I said before you left.” Oh man, her voice is breaking, but she has to let this out of the system “I was being a bitch and I shouldn’t have said that we’re not family because we are and...fuck! I wouldn’t have blamed you if you had let me die there and…”

 

Diana pulled her into a hug and Cassie lets out an unintelligible sound before starting to properly cry.

 

She clings onto her sister for dear life, almost like Tartarus is going to reclaim her and take her away from the people she loves again because she is a terrible person, her blubbering only grows harder when Diana tells her softly that she shouldn’t be so hard on herself and that there is no reason to asks for forgiveness, Cassie can barely mutter the words __sorry__ again as she gradually calms down.

 

“I-I-I was going to say s-s-sorry b-but t-then y-you left a-and…”

 

“Hush, little sister, hush.” Diana whispered was softly stroking her hair “Yes, it was hurtful, but I do know that you didn’t actually mean it, and the past is in the past, no use beating yourself over it. Cassie, look at me, please.” Cassie obeyed, although her whole face was red and puffy because of the crying “You and Donna are my family; when I found out that you were on Tartarus of all places I only imagined the worst scenario. Don’t even said that I’d let you die in there, if anything, who should apologize here it’s me, I should have saved you sooner.”

 

Cassie was close to turning into a blubbering mess again.

 

“S-Shut up, D-Diana.” She wiped away the remaining tears in her eyes “Don’t even a-apologize to m-me again, I will kick y-your ass.”

 

Diana sounded really amused by the comment.

 

“I love you too, Cassandra.”

 

Cassie slowly let go of the hug “Sorry about the mess in your shirt, by the way.”

 

“Don’t worry about it.” And Diana kisses her forehead, almost to reinforce the point “Have you eaten?”

 

“No.” And her stomach suddenly remembered she hadn't eaten in a week “Crying makes me hungry.”

 

“And you should eat as soon as possible. You haven't eaten in more than a week.”

 

Donna must have been waiting for the mention of food; because she literally opened the door with a plate full of food.

 

“For how long you have been there?” Diana asked.

 

“I just got here, as you said, this girl needs to ea— Cassie are you okay?”

 

Well, her crying must have been evident by the way Donna was looking at her “I'm fine, seriously. But I'm starving.”

 

Donna gladly delivers the food as she takes a seat next to Diana while Cassie devours the spaghetti and meatballs Donna had done for her, back at Tartarus she had felt hunger at first, yet it had gone away since she had bigger things to worry than her stomach (the pain that still lingers on her leg proves that) and when she finally woke up in the outside world she hadn't been particularly hungry despite not having eaten in a week. But as soon as she took a bite off one of the meatballs? Her stomach went __oh__ and her appetite went __oh__ as well, she doesn't remember how it tasted, it must have been good; because she finished it in a matter of minutes.

 

Diana explains that the reason she was missing it was because she had fake memories - or rather, things that happened but she remembers them differently, she remembers Donna and Cassie - but she also remembers knowing them under very different circumstances, and she is still looking for what is the definitive truth.

 

“Barbara Minerva helped me to get to Themyscira but...that wasn’t my real home, I had never returned and it...it almost broke me. And I lost Barbara Minerva again because it took me too late to get back to normal. I was going to resume my search when I finally saw the Titans and Donna told me that you had gone missing, Cassie, and I wasn’t going to lose anyone important again.”

 

“So, you don’t know who Jason is?”

 

“My twin brother.”

 

“Since when you have a twin brother?” Cassie asked “I think you forgot to mention that fact.”

 

Diana looked uncomfortable - which is weird, because Diana was a six-feet tall amazon, six-feet tall Amazons shouldn’t look uncomfortable.

 

“Which origin is the one you know?”

 

“Um...Your mom created you from clay and the Gods breathed life into you? And then a contest happened and you came to our world and became Wonder Woman. What do you mean by which origin?”

 

“It’s complicated, as I say, I remember two pasts, and I sometimes I don’t know the ones that are real. Except when it comes to you two, I met the Cassandra who is meant to be my niece, but the meeting felt...inorganic, though I believe I had some sort of fondness for her, and Donna...well, I don’t want to talk about it. Which leads me to my other point, my brother is the source of my confusion and I need to reach him, but I cannot do it alone.” As willing to help others as she was, Diana had a hard time for asking help herself “I need help.”

 

“Well, since you asked so nicely, I might as well help you.” Donna commented as she put her arm around Diana’s shoulder “What about you, Cassie?”

 

Cassie thought about hitting brother Jason in the groin, __repeatedly.__

 

“Count me in.”

**Author's Note:**

> i really didnt like the ending i just wanted to finish the fic,
> 
> if im gonna be the only one that writes wonderfam fics so be it


End file.
